Review #56: American Werewolf in Paris (1997)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Anthony Waller (Director)

Tom Everett Scott (Andy): That Thing You Do! (1996), Dead Man on Campus (1998)

Julie Delpy (Serafine): 3 Muskateers (1993)

Vince Vieluf (Brad): Rat Race (2001), Barely Legal (2003), Firewall (2006), Epic Movie (2007)

Julie Bowen (Amy): Happy Gilmore (1996), Multiplicity (1996), Boston Legal & Lost T.V. series

Trailer:


Plot:
Three American college students are backpacking through Europe when they end up in France. They're actually "thrill seekers" out to cause problems have fun and represent the Red, White and Blue.

While in France, they bungee jump off the Eiffel Tower and one of them (Andy) saves a mysterious girl (Serafine) trying to kill herself. Andy gets puppy dog eyes for her and falls in love with her after saving her life. Serafine is kind of greatful, but she holds a dark mysterious secret to her family heritage.

Andy is desperate to make things work and find out her secret, so he does what any good American would do...stalk her until she falls for him. And it works! Andy eventually hooks up with Serafine and learns that she is a werewolf.

Serafine also belongs to a secret society "pack" of werewolves who have developed an experimental formula that allows a werewolf to change at any time...not just when the full moon appears.

Villain:

A bunch of bad puppies. Werewolves. A lot of werewolves...actually a secret society of them. So take that! It's like if the Skulls and the Howling had an evil stepchild turned into a movie.

Cast:

The cast was actually pretty good, but not spectacular for the film. I thought that I was going to be annoyed by the guys in the film after the first twenty minutes, but eventually came to tolerate them. They displayed the typical "Why Europe and the world hates America" attitude.

SFX/Gore:

There were around 15 dead bodies (give or take due to party scenes) in this one. I wasn't totally impressed with the werewolf as I was with the first movie. Overall the look wasn't bad, it just wasn't fabulous.

TNA:

A few more hot chicks than the first one...yeah! Serafine does her best to give the male audience what they want...sex and boobies. Julie D. (pictured left) and Julie B. (pictured right...she's the chick from Happy Gilmore)

T.Gun's Take:

An American Werewolf in Paris is a similar idea to the first one...American college students backpacking in Europe, one gets bitten by a werewolf...yada yada yada. They had to throw in the whole "secret society" of puppies thing with a super serum and hot girl friend "is in with league but doesn't want to be" plot to change things up a bit.

Still this movie was pretty good...for a sequel. I thought going into it, that it would suck as a sequel, but it proved me wrong. It was kind of weird having a sequel over 16 years after the first movie. I guess it took a while to find a pack of werewolves to pull it off.

A.A.W.I.P. had a couple good qualities to it. First of all, I liked the bungee jumpin' off the Eiffel Tower bit. That would be fun to do, but I doubt somehow the French police would be thrilled with it. But who cares? The French suck!

Secondly, I really loved the sniffing up the skirt of the hot chick in the cafe foreplay. That was awesome. Animal primal instincts at their best!

While A.A.W.I.P. is not exactly a copy-paste storyline of the original and not as super cool, it still is a good enough flick to sit down to and enjoy watching to kill some time.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
- Film opened December 25, 1997 and made $26.5 million at the box office ($7.6 million opening weekend)
- John Landis was the original choice to direct